The invention relates to fluid jet ejectors, including the type used in inkjet printer heads. Present inkjet printer heads employ piezoelectric devices as the driver element. The present invention affords an alternative to the piezoelectric element.
The present invention provides a fluid jet ejector comprising a pair of spaced capacitor plates, one of which is a thin diaphragm, responsive to a time varying voltage causing a varying electric field between the plates to set the diaphragm into mechanical motion as the driver element. In the preferred embodiment, the diaphragm is semiconductor material, such as silicon, and the set of capacitor plates may be photolithographically developed.